


Unexpected Family

by Wishful86



Series: Tales of the Unexpected [6]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Family, Future Fic, Gen, M/M, My kind of fluff again, Spider!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 09:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7042735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wishful86/pseuds/Wishful86
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things worked out in a way that Liv would never have expected. She wouldn't change it for the world now though. </p><p>(Or Liv and Aaron both share a fear and Robert is a bit of a hero)</p><p>Hope you enjoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Family

**Author's Note:**

> I can't help it. I love the thought of these three as a family.

Liv hated this. She’d only got up to go to the loo when there is was. Scuttling. Far too quickly. Somehow she managed to refrain from shrieking. She stood frozen for a moment watching the beast. It was only when it stopped in the middle of her rug, she shook herself and realised this was her chance. Grasping the glass off her bedside table, she quickly downed the remnants of water and then threw it over the spider. Then she backed away. She winced slightly as she watched the spider go into a frazzle inside its prison. Although she couldn’t bring herself to pick spiders up and take them outside, she would never kill them nor did she like the thought of hurting them. They just freaked her out. Too many legs. 

Suddenly remembering why she gotten up in the first place, she side-stepped the glass and headed down the hall. 

Coming out of the bathroom, she realised she had a problem. There was no way she could sleep in her room knowing the spider was there. Even if it was trapped. She'd feel guilty. But also, what if that spider happened to be the eight-legged Houdini? She shuddered. It had to go. It used to be easy; she’s go and wake her mum and then she'd get rid. No questions. Well, perhaps a bit of grumbling but it’s all be forgotten about by morning. She glanced towards Aaron and Robert’s bedroom door. It was left slightly open. Liv didn’t want to think about what it being closed meant but the fact that it was slightly open now filled her with relief. She could ask one of them to get rid. Yeah, that was it. She stepped across the hall and came to a stop outside the door about to apply a gentle knock to it before going in. She'd always done that with her mum. However, as she stood there, she found she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t wake them about a spider; they'd think she was an idiot. She'd managed to keep her fear from them for so long too. She’d only had two freak outs since her time in Emmerdale; one with Gabby and Bernice and quite frankly they were all as bad as each other. Thank goodness for Sam. And one was with Vic who had dealt with the situation like a pro; just sliding a piece of paper under a cup. 

Liv squared her shoulders, left her brother's door and headed back to her room. She could be Vic. She could do this. She was fifteen years old. Not ten. 

It was a mixed feeling of relief and panic to see that the spider was still there. Liv glared at her nemesis. She took hold of one of her school notepads and tore a sheet of paper out of it then bending down, she reached out and put a hand on the glass. The spider moved underneath. Liv retracted her arm so fast that she lost balance and fell back on her bottom. This was ridiculous. She stood up and returned to Aaron and Robert’s door. This time she knocked and entered.

Robert slept nearest the door. Liv could make out his back as he was on his side facing the other way. Liv was pleased that Robert was closest. Something about having to wake Aaron up had never felt right. Chas had caught her hesitating to do so once and had told her that she wasn’t the only one. It seemed no-one wanted to take away any moment of peace from her brother. It made sense. They didn’t like to think about the why. 

Liv coughed. A trick she learnt with her mum. Like the knock first. It was a gentle signal that she was there which would hopefully start the waking process a bit less directly than having to touch a shoulder or an arm. Unfortunately, Robert was proving rather a heavy sleeper. Liv reached tentatively out and patted his back. He shifted. He didn’t turn. She tried again; this time accompanying the movement with a soft “Robert”.

That seemed to work. Robert moved onto his back and his eyes started blinking open, “Aaron?” he whispered. That made Liv smile. She liked that his first thought would be for her brother. But then she realised Robert was focussed on her with a face full of concern. That made her feel guilty. 

“Liv?” Robert squinted at her in the darkness as he shuffled into a more seated position, “Liv, what is it? It something wrong?”

“I, er, I…” Liv stammered as she suddenly felt foolish and embarrassed. This feeling only increased when she her brother’s voice came from the other side of Robert. 

“Rob? Robert, what...” Aaron asked, as he too shifted until he was sat up. “Liv?” he frowned as she came into his view.

“Liv, love, what’s wrong?” Robert tried again.

Liv opened and closed her mouth a few times before sighing and spitting it out, “There is a huge spider in my room. I trapped it under a glass. I can’t move it though. I tried! But I can’t sleep if it stays. It’s just there. It’s huge!”

Two sets of eyes blinked at her as their sleepy heads tried to digest what they had just heard. Liv felt her cheeks flushing. She didn’t know whether she’d be laughed at, or possibly shouted at or-

“Well, you can deal with this one,” Aaron stated, nudging Robert. 

Robert rolled his eyes. “Wimp,” he teased as he began pushing the covers down.

“Far too many legs, Rob” Aaron argued, “Besides, if it was a moth-“

“Urgh,” Robert grimaced, “Don’t.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes and then looked up at Liv. “Right, let’s get rid, shall we?” he stated, standing up.

“Liv was flummoxed. “You... you’re not annoyed?”

Aaron frowned or at least he would have done but a yawn took over, “Annoyed?” he said through it.

“I thought...I didn’t...” Liv stammered.

“Liv, I hate spiders. I'm right there with you,” Aaron told her.

“Yeah,” Robert nodded, “He also has a weird thing about ladybir- 

“Oi! Moth Boy’!” Aaron interrupted firmly, “Carry on with that sentence and you won’t be getting back in this bed.”

Robert grinned childishly and Liv couldn’t help but laugh. Especially as Robert lent down and whispered, “Tell you later,” in her ear. 

“Don’t you two have a spider to do battle with?” Aaron grumbled, shuffling back down the covers and closing his eyes.

Robert shook his head fondly at his boyfriend before turning back to Liv, “Lead the way.”

...

Robert knelt down and narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t say you were harbouring a tarantula,” he half-joked as he watched the spider wriggle underneath the glass.

Liv folded her arms as she stood at a safe distance in the doorway, “I did say it was big.”

Robert looked back at her. “Have you got a card or piece of paper?” he asked.

Moving to pick up the paper she'd dropped earlier she handed it to Robert. 

“Thanks,” he said, getting into position, “Now, go and open the front door ready, ok?”

Liv nodded and then left the room. She didn’t have to wait long by the front door for Robert to come and join her holding the glass with the paper keeping the spider inside. She didn’t expect Aaron to wander down beside them though,

“Decided I needed the bog,” he said by way of explanation as he stood behind his sister and squeezed her shoulders. “Let’s see it then,” he gestured to Robert. 

Robert shrugged and then held up the glass, amused to see both Aaron and Liv recoil. “Honestly, it’s just a spider,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, right, ‘Moth Boy!” Liv shot back causing Aaron to laugh. 

Robert rolled his eyes and then smirked, “You know, I could just leave this in the house.”

“Don’t you dare,” Aaron glared at him.

Laughing Robert leant forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead, “Nah, couldn’t do it to you.”

Liv groaned. “Hello! Spider!” she sing-songed to refocus their attention. 

“Ok,” Robert chuckled, pulling back and then taking a few steps outside he bent down and released the spider on the grass. He then held up the glass so Liv, and Aaron, could see it was gone. 

“Thank you,” Liv said with a smile. 

“No problem,” Robert told her as he re-entered the house, “Now, let’s get back to bed, eh?”

“Yup,” Aaron agreed tapping his sister’s back, “Come on, you've got school in the morning.”

“Urgh,” she grumbled as she moved to go back up the stairs, “Still don’t understand why I have to go.”  
“’Cos it's the law,” both Aaron and Robert called up the stairs after her in a tone that showed they'd said it a million times before. 

They looked at each other and smiled. “After you,” Robert said to Aaron nodding at the stairs. 

Aaron raised his brow but moved anyway. He felt Robert behind him, “Robert Sudgen are you checking out my arse?”

“So what if I am?” Robert smirked.

“You two have got work in the morning!” Liv shouted from somewhere above, causing her brother and his boyfriend to laugh. 

“Well, that’s us told,” Aaron whispered with a chuckle as he reached the top of the stairs. 

Robert put his hands on his boyfriend’s hips, “Hey, I’ve been a hero tonight.”

Aaron’s bit his lip and his eyes glinted, “Would you like me to bow down and worship you, my hero?”

Robert couldn’t help the groan that escaped his lips, “That’s it. Come with me.” He took hold of Aaron’s hand and led him back to bed.

….

Liv returned to her room and found that she couldn’t help but do a sweep just to check the spider didn’t have any friends lurking around. Thankfully, she found none. Turning off the light again and crawling under the covers, she felt a surge of warmth. Not just because of the cosiness of her bed but because she realised that this was it; she’d finally got it. She’d had it once of course but she didn’t like to dwell on that anymore and what came after was not exactly perfect but this now, well, this came pretty close. She had a family; her brother and her brother’s boyfriend. It was unconventional, not at all what she’d thought about, wished for, for years, but that didn’t matter. She’d never felt so loved. 

…

**Author's Note:**

> "The one thing worse than seeing a spider is not seeing a spider."   
> Eddie Izzard. 
> 
> He is so right.


End file.
